Learn how to rate »

Want to know even more about Eview?

Business Eview is a local Bellingham business. Feel free to contact us.

Comments or Questions?

Discover more about Bellingham's community »

Lofty words cannot construct an alliance or maintain it; only concrete deeds do that.

~John F. Kennedy

Business Frequently Asked Questions

Top Answers for Local Businesses

What is the benefit of partnering with an online cooperative like The Eview?
What is the "Good Business" difference?
Why is it important to be rated by customers?
What do Eview Ratings and Reports offer my business?
How can a "bad rating" help my business?
Can anyone join Eview?
What if I already have a website?
What is expected of me as an Eview member?
What if I know nothing about creating a website?
What is "permission marketing"?
What is dispute resolution and how does it work?

What is the benefit of partnering with an online cooperative like The Eview?

Listing your services and resources on Eview provides a number of benefits:

You can reach local shoppers actively seeking your services online
You are instantly known as consumer-friendly and believing in "Good Business"
Your validity in the eyes of the customer is increased due to our impartial bias
You receive communication and marketing tools designed to improve business
You become part of a network of local businesses who support our community

What is the "Good Business" difference?

The "Good Business" difference means our local search engine and its business members offer a balanced view of local services-verified credentials, consumer ratings, and local websites.

No hype. Just knowledge about local businesses willing to showcase their service record and raise the local service standard in Whatcom County.

Why is it important to be rated by customers?

Whether or not you are an Eview member, you're going to be rated by your customers. Consumer opinions matter and word-of-mouth marketing is real. Grab the bull by the horns and embrace the changing face of the market. By opening your business up to the power of "disclosure marketing", you let the public know you value their opinion-good or bad-and you help attract and build a base of loyal customers.

Being rated speaks to the trend that consumers want to be heard and have the competency and technology to seek out businesses that provide what they want.

What do Eview Ratings and Reports offer my business?

Consumer opinion is the key to finding out how to improve your business. Eview surveys are a great way to differentiate your self and your business philosophy and get people talking about your company.

Using feedback and feedback reports, you can learn how to give consumers what they want, how to target the right customers, and how to refine your marketing message. Custom questions on your Eview Surveys help you find out about specific products, how your employees are performing, or what customers would like.

Eview Surveys showcase your customers' priorities and Eview Reports present your overall ratings. We will help you learn to utilize the data to improve your business and continually innovate and improve your business.

How can a bad rating help me?

Think of it this way: A strong response to a complaint can change someone's perception of your business and cause them to tell the community how responsive you are.

When a consumer doesn't say anything to you, you are powerless to rectify a situation. That same customer is going to share their poor experience with their friends and associates. By welcoming ratings (both good and bad), you set yourself up with a mechanism to reply to public comments.

On our website, the typical consumer likes to view not only good ratings but bad ones as well-primarily to see how a business reacted to the complaint. Nobody expects a business to be perfect, but they do expect accountability. This may mean rectifying a situation before it escalates or just acknowledging and apologizing for a problem.

Can anyone join the Eview?

Any local business can join our network, as long as you have a local website, we can verify your credentials, and you enable yourself to be rated. It is optimum for you to have between 10 and 25 active ratings at all times, and this will require your active effort. We provide marketing tools and advertising resources that encourage rating, but it works best for you to approach your most loyal customers and ask them to rate you online.

What if I already have a website?

Eview is not about a website, it is about a web presence. Our service offers a low-cost marketing tool that is a beneficial addendum or portal to existing sites. As an Eview member, your business receives added legitimacy and a strong marketing tool to differentiate your business as one that is committed to the consumer.

Our search engine functionality gives you a strength and greater presence than conventional search engines, as it highlights local companies and connects your search results with local consumer ratings. Optimization is maximized for both your existing site and your Eview website.

There is power to being part of a collective. Ours is a user-friendly site for consumers to shop conveniently, efficiently, and effectively. We make it easy for interested parties to connect with you and you benefit from ongoing local customer feedback.

What is expected from me if I become an Eview member?

Eview businesses are expected to embrace transparancy and to actively recruit consumers to rate their business online. We hope you will incorporate Eview philosophies and tools into your everyday business processes and that you use the ratings process and data to learn, innovate, and grow your business. We expect businesses in our network to engage with your customers when they are not satisfied and seek to rectify all situations. And that you establish good communication as a strong precedence with all customers, utilizing Eview communication tools.

What if I know nothing about creating a website?

Our website creation tool makes it easy for even a novice to create a five-page online portfolio within the Eview website. We offer online tips and face-to-face classes and workshops to assist our members in creating effective sites. For an additional fee, professional content, website, and graphic development resources are available through our local office. Contact us for more information.

What is "Permission Marketing"?

Marketing is a contest for people's attention. Permission Marketing is a new perspective that embraces the power consumers have in selecting and frequenting the businesses that meet their needs. It also acknowledges the power of the consumer to affect others' choices via word-of-mouth marketing.

Traditional mass-marketing fights for people's attention by interrupting them. A 30-second commercial interrupts your favorite television program. A telemarketer interrupts your dinner. Today's paradigm shift does away with interruptions and meets consumers on their own turf. Permission marketing persuades consumers to volunteer their attention and learn more about a company based on a promise that the company values the consumer's attention and input.

The term "permission marketing" was coined by an East Coast marketing firm called Yoyodyne Entertainment which was purchased by Yahoo in 1998. Yoyodyne president Seth Godin's mission is to get companies to reinvent how they relate to their customers. "Permission marketing turns strangers into friends and friends into loyal customers," he says. "It's not just about entertainment - it's about education."

More information about permission marketing can be found in our Best Practices articles exclusively to members of our Eview business network. Click to become a member now.

How does dispute resolution work?

The goal is for Eview businesses to be accountable for what they promise a customer and for consumers to make informed decisions to patronize only the businesses they feel best meet their criteria. However, things don't always work out perfectly-so we provide a dispute resolution service when needed. Here is how it works:

After all attempts to resolve a dispute between your business and a customer have failed, you can request our assistance: Either online using our dispute resolution request form, via e-mail, by phone, fax, or by conventional mail.
We will acknowledge your request within three business days of receiving it.
Then we will contact the consumer and ask for their view of the issue.
Eview will make a recommendation to resolve the issue and should either party reject the recommendation, we will attempt to mediate an agreement.
Should that fail, we will refer both parties to an independent arbitrator. The expense of arbitration will be the responsibility of the two parties agreeing to arbitration.
The transaction in dispute must be between a current Eview business subscriber and consumer registered with Eview prior to the date of service.
The provided service must have occurred within the last 90 days and be equal to or more than $200 worth of services or products.

Quick Answers for Biz Eview Network Members

Questions about my website:

How hard is it to create my website? Does it take long?
Do you provide any additional assistance to help me build my site?
How can I create Special Offers on my website?
How do my customers access my site?
How do I obtain a domain name?
How does the online class registration work?
How does Pay Pal work?

Questions about Eview ratings:

How do I obtain ratings from my customers?
How many ratings do I need to have?
How can I use my ratings scorecard?
What are the benefits of consumer feedback reports and how do I use them?
Why should I respond to consumer reviews?
How do I know competitors or angry customers won’t try to sabotage my service?
How can I use Eview to create marketing messages that work?
How can I use my Eview partnership to strengthen my marketing message?

Questions about The Eview:

What does The Eview do to drive consumers to the site?
What is cooperative or joint advertising? How do I sign up or find out more?
What are the Best Practice articles I see listed on The Eview site?
How do I submit an “Expert” article for publication on “Our Community” page?
If I have a question, is there someone local from the Eview that I can call?

Questions about my website:

How hard is it to create my website? Does it take long?

The Eview Website Creation Tool makes it easy for businesses to create their own websites. If you have all of your content (e.g. text, images, artwork) ready before you start, the process of choosing web layouts and uploading your content is quick and straightforward.

Remember: You can always post your homepage to the Web and add other pages later. The Business Eview is unique because it is easy for members to update and/or change their site at any time.

Does The Eview provide any additional assistance to help me build my site?

Our goal is to help you build a site that is effective and efficient at getting you more or better business. The Business Eview Website Creation Tool is designed to make the web building process easy for business owners. It’s highly interactive and intuitive, yet we also offer the following for network members:

Convenient classes on how to design your site, build content, and use our service.
Best Practice hints and tips on how to build an effective site, viewable only by members via your admin page and Best Practice article index.
Local customer reps who can answer your questions over the phone and/or drop by to view and/or help you with changes to your site. You can contact us by email or give us a call at (360) 733-6900.
Paid services from specialists who can build your site for you are available when needed, at costs that are much lower than traditional web and design firms.

How can I create Special Offers on my website?

Special Offers are online coupons that your business can use to:

Offer incentives to prospective clients that give them added reason to use your service.
Give to customers to thank them for completing Eview surveys after using your service.

Special Offer coupons can be created online by all Business Eview networks members. You can also become part of our “Coupon Cooperative”, which allows any business member to:

Submit their coupons for other businesses in the network to use as “thank you” coupons.
Offer their customers thank you coupons from other network businesses.

The Coupon Cooperative is a great way for your business to network with other local companies, advertise your service, and gain resources and incentives for your customers.

How do my customers access my site?

Both existing and new customers can access your site in a variety of ways. They can access the Business Eview website and then:

Enter your business name into our Quick Search, then click your link in the Search Results
Search for your “classification” of business and then select your link from the Search Results

They can access your website directly without going through the Business Eview website:

By typing your domain name* in a web browser to access your Eview site directly.

Note: If you have your own independent site, you can create a link from your Eview site, so visitors have multiple ways to find and learn about your services. Additionally, you can put an Eview link on your own site and link to your Eview site and all the resources that it offers your customers.

What is a domain name and how do I get one?

A domain name is your website address. At Business Eview, we provide three options for getting a website address:

An Eview domain directly through our site if you do not want to purchase one.
An Eview domain to those who already own their own URLs.
Links from our site to inexpensive services where you can purchase your own URL.

Once you have chosen your domain name, verified its availability and purchased it, let us know and we will direct your customers to your Eview site from our search engine.

How does the online class registration work?

Online registration is a tool that allows customers to register for your classes via your website. Create and update up to 25 classes anytime you want. Visitors to your website can send a secure registration form directly to your e-mail. Receive your registrant’s information quickly, conveniently, and effectively. Customers have the convenience of registering instantly on the web. You can also add the convenience of an online payment option as well.

How does Pay Pal work?

PayPal can help you accept online payments. Offering PayPal as an electronic payment solution lets you securely process credit card charges without the expense and paperwork of a conventional merchant account.

Payment options enable you to serve more consumer segments and thus generate more sales. Most businesses that chose to offer credit cards find that the processing fees pay for themselves through additional sales. You should strongly consider whether or not this feature can add value to your business.

When setting up online registration for a class or event, simply follow the steps to activate online payment with PayPal.

There are no setup or cancellation fees, and no gateway or monthly charges. Just low per transaction fees. Check out PayPal merchant tools for more information and feel free to contact us if you have questions.

Questions about Eview ratings:

How do I obtain ratings from my customers?

Your customers can be powerful marketing tools. When they rate your business, they generally also tell their friends about your business. Ask your customers to rate your business and consider rewarding them with “thank you” coupons. This lets your customers know you want their trust and value their feedback.

To help educate your existing client base, The Business Eview offers all business network members materials that explain how ratings work and encourage them to rate the businesses they patronize.

We believe you are the most vital component in getting customer reviews. By approaching your most loyal and consistent customers, you will create a foundation of positive Eviews and high ratings.

How many ratings do I need to have?

To be most effective, we recommend a business have between 10 and 25 current ratings at all times. The reality is—the more ratings you have, the more validity your service has with new customers.

Note: When the number of your overall ratings is higher, one bad review will have less impact on changing your ratings due to your business having a higher percentage of satisfied customers.

What is a Ratings Scorecard and how can I use it?

Your company’s Ratings Scorecard is a downloadable brochure for your business. It showcases the home page from your website, your business credentials, contact information, logo and Eview ratings.

There are multiple ways you and your customers can use your Ratings Scorecard:

Prospective clients may print it as a reference or to share with a friend.
You can use it in your sales calls; just attach it to your proposals and let it do the work.
It is also a tool to use to drive individuals to your site.

You can also direct interested clients to go to your site and download a free copy for reference.

What are the benefits of Eview Consumer Feedback Reports and how do I use them?

Our goal is to provide you with information about your consumers, their expectations and their opinions, so your business can continually adapt to your market’s changing needs. Eview Surveys provide a maximum amount of information to your business through our free Consumer Ratings Reports.

Why should I respond to consumer reviews?

Communication is the key to developing customer relationships built on trust.

It is a good business principle to engage with your customers and make them feel important.
Customer relationships are a great avenue to gain referral, leads and repeat business.
Responding to consumer comments shows the character of your business.

A response to a consumer comment is the best way to show you are accountable, conscientious, and willing to fix a situation—especially if a rating is bad. The significance of ratings is not always about being good or bad, sometimes it is simply about how you respond to a problem.

How do I know competitors or angry customers won’t try to sabotage my service?

It is always a possibility that someone could try to use bogus information against you. Working together, we believe we can eliminate this as much as possible. At Business Eview, we utilize a variety of precautions to make sure sabotage doesn’t happen.

Customers who complete surveys—also known as Eviewers—have to be accountable by disclosing their e-mail addresses.
We require Eviewers to have used your service, and we ask a customer to rate an individual experience only once.
If there is an issue and an Eviewer cannot verify service with you, we retain the right to take their Eviews off our site.
You have the tools to respond to a customer and we offer dispute resolution services.

The best way to monitor your Eviews is to stay abreast of comments about your services and respond if appropriate. We will offer you daily updates on new ratings via e-mail.

How can I use Eview to create marketing messages that work?

Your partnership with Business Eview is something you can utilize everyday as a sales and marketing tool. There is unquestionable value in having a website and even more when it is part of a cooperative of businesses that value what you value.

Eview surveys and ratings allow you to learn about the people who visit your site.
Eview communication tools allow you to respond to consumers, elevating the value of your service and building your level of trust with your customers.
Enhanced customer relationships expand your word of mouth network, build your reputation, bring your business referrals, and brand you as part of a network dedicated to Good Business.

You can use the information from your Eviews to create a target message for future customers. We stress that you use Eview to get clients, encourage repeat business, drive people to your site, and gain ratings.

How can I use my Eview partnership to strengthen my marketing message?

Businesses associated with The Eview will be viewed as local services that value the consumer. Because we are an independent credentials and ratings site, we stress that your ratings and credentials are valid and not tampered with by you.

The integrity that is associated with our business philosophy of disclosure enhances your message.
We also give you strong tools that let consumers see you believe in supplying “Good Business”.
Finally, we offer you sales tools such as the Printable Scorecard that you can use when vying for new services or to strengthen current relationships.

Questions about The Eview:

What does The Eview do to drive consumers to the site?

The Business Eview uses a variety of strategies to make the Eview a mainstay in the consumer’s consciousness, including:

Being free to consumers
Having our strong search engine optimization strategies
Implementing an extensive community Eview advertising strategy
Offering a variety of tools for businesses to advertise their partnership with Eview
Promoting a business model that accents our members as our #1 promoters who drive people to their sites through tools such as window treatments, cards, and counter displays

What is cooperative or joint advertising? How do I sign up or find out more?

We offer a variety of programs where businesses can “opt into” various advertising campaigns with other members of our business network. This creates a larger advertising presence, because joint advertisements are typically larger than what individual businesses can afford.

The goal with our programs is to coordinate campaigns among like-minded or industry-specific businesses, allowing for a strong focus on targeting the best customers for a business.

To find out what cooperative advertising opportunities are currently available, contact us by email or call your representative at (360) 733-6900.

What are the Best Practice articles I see listed on The Eview site?

Best Practice articles are written by business experts about topics that we feel would be of service to your business. They are only for Eview business network members. The type of articles include:

How-to use Eview to your advantage
How-to benefit from permission marketing
How-to design effective websites
How-to create effective marketing campaigns

We also offer Expert Articles for our consumer audience, which are written by you, our member experts.

How do I submit an “Expert Article” for publication on Eview’s Our Community page?

We are looking for articles that add value to the consumer experience. The goal is for a business to write articles that advocate the best practices that a consumer may take in a particular situation. Businesses can author Expert Articles as an effective marketing tool by offering a short paragraph about their business and a link to their website.

The business member should have knowledge and experience with the subject matter.
The business should verify the subject matter with the Eview
By submitting an article to the Business Eview, you give us license to use the article in ways that we deem appropriate for the time period that we allot it valid and verifiable.
After the business member submits the article to us, we may edit, reformat, and post your article if the information is deemed appropriate.
We retain the right to reject or accept the article at our discretion.

If I have a question, is there someone local from the Eview that I can call?

Yes, we are a local service with local support. Not only do we offer phone support, but we also offer online support, classes, and one-on-one, in-person appointments when necessary. Contact us for more info.